what I learned travelling 4500 miles on the shinkasen

Written on April 16th, 2024 by Jonathan Tsang

Recently I got the opportunity to ride the shinkasen around Japan to explore the different Japanese cities and what they had to offer. My limited Japanese and overall sense of adventure is what pulled me through and excited me and I want to share what I found.

What I won’t cover in depth is Japan’s move away from physical yen and towards contactless payments in IC cards like Suica or specifically what cities to visit in Japan. I’ll probably revisit these ideas in a future post.

To put in context my travels in Japan, I got the ordinary 21 day JR rail pass, not the green car access one, for the hefty price of 100,000 yen. This is the price after the recent price increase that happened in October 2023. I’ll detail where I went to give a better picture of how many miles I travelled on the Shinkasen. I started in Tokyo since I flew into Narita and went to Osaka, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, Kagoshima, Sendai, and Sapporo not necessarily in that order. I rode approximately 4500 miles and I won’t include the Hokkaido Hokuto from Shin Hakodate to Sapporo in that calculation because it isn’t a shinkansen train and if I did include all forms of trains like local ones especially around Tokyo it would probably far exceed 5000 miles.

what is the Japan Rail Pass?

It is encompassing pass to used on most major train networks throughout Japan. It coves shinkasen trains and some local trains owned by Japan rail. The reason why it is somewhat confusing is because a train from Tokyo to Osaka would be covered by a bus in Kyoto would not.

There are also local trains that are not covered by the pass and you need to pay for it with a ticket or an IC card. An example of this is the Tokyo Rinkai Subway line.

It becomes even more confusing because you can go to Yokoham on JR Rail subways through the Keihin-Tohoku line but also through a non-JR Rail line like the KeiKyu main line. A discerning factor is the square symbol and “J” denoting a JR rail operated subway.

There are also non-train benefits like the Hiroshima Miyajima ferry that covers most of the cost with a Japan Rail pass. There is now a 200 yen visitor fee you need to pay which is cheaper than just the standalone ticket.

In terms of logistics I was able to pick my JR rail pass in Narita and reserve tickets on their website fairly easily.

Pros of JR Rail Pass

Ease of use is my first big takeaway from the JR pass. It feels like a catch-all ticket that allows for easy access through a lot of busy turnstiles. What I didn’t understand at first was the multiple layers of turnstiles for local trains and then inter-city trains where I had to give both my JR Rail pass ticket and the ticket for the specific inter-city train I was going on. For example at the turnstile 1 it deals with local trains and then at turnstile 2 for shinkansen trains it needs both my ticket from Tokyo to Sendai on the Hayabusa and the JR pass ticket since at this point all trains will leave the city and are no longer local.

This also factors in getting lost or waiting at ticket machines which can be busier at Tokyo, Shin-Osaka, or other stations during rush hour.

Day trips on local JR trains are also in this mix. If you are in Osaka or Kyoto and going to Nara, Kobe, or Uji for example. No ticket machine use is necessary and lets you use your ticket on non-reserved cars on the trains.

The biggest benefit I think is being able to book seats ahead of time on busy routes and busy times. I don’t want to be stuck standing or waiting in non reserved cars with tour groups. Specific routes that I found the busiest were Shin-Hakodate back to Tokyo and Osaka to Tokyo or vice versa. It might just be the commuters back to Tokyo or time of year but I felt some security being able to guarantee a ticket back in easy manner since I can use the website.

Cons of JR Rail Pass

Making it worth it your while is probably the biggest downside.

There are a few websites that calculate how much it would cost to pay versus getting the JR Rail pass and a lot of times it is hard to make it worth it. Most people won’t travel the full length of Japan and even a section like JR East or JR West is more than sufficient.

Other possible payment methods like Suica between cities is also a remedy to the ticket machine line as I said above. I personally didn’t use this but many people cited that for some places it allowed IC cards to tap on and off to calculate the cost through the card easily. I did find the Suica apple pay quite convenient but I do wonder about making sure I have enough funds on my Suica card at all times since long rides can be over 10,000 yen, but that is a minor problem.

My recommendation

It will depend heavily on where you travel to and what you want to do. If you are only going to Tokyo and Osaka it will be very hard to make it worth it. You may only ride the Shinkansen 2-3 times and maybe some more for day trips around Osaka and Kyoto.

For anyone staying longer than 2 weeks and spending more time outside of Tokyo, I still recommend the JR Rail pass for first time travellers to Japan even if the negatives outweigh the positives. I would rather get some more flexibility and ease of use over saving money and gives the freedom to get lost sometimes, which I definitely did, and learn the transit system on a deeper level so next time you are more knowledgeable about it.

It is hard to fully grasp the comprehensive routes and lines of Japan or even Tokyo’s transit the first time around and despite doing as much research as you can, there is no better substitute than just going out there and trying it out.